A sawmill is a valuable piece of equipment on a farm and in
any rural area where woodlands can provide timber for sawing. Rough cut boards provide lumber for farm and rural
buildings..... or the rough lumber can be dried and planed smooth for fine furniture and cabinetry.

Click on thumbnail photos for a larger view

A Red Maple table made from lumber cut from our woodland

The sawmill can also provide income in rural areas by providing ties and timbers for railroads and mines as well
as rough boards for the local market. Some large mills buy quality rough cut hardwood boards for the furniture industry
from small home operations, called "peckerwood" mills.

Our first sawmill was a Belsaw M14 sawmill which we found in disrepair on a farm in Northern New Jersey.
It took major rebuilding to make it work, but it made lumber for us.
Belsaw was bought by Foley in 1977 and the Belsaw circular sawmills were still made in the 90s but are now discontinued.
Our present mill is an Ireland #6. It is big enough to be used in commercial operations but small enough
for two men to operate. With a crew of 3 or 4 men the Ireland #6 mill can easily put out 10,000 board feet of lumber
in a day. The Ireland Corporation of Norwich, New York ceased making sawmills in the 1940s, but the Ireland Corporation continued until the 1980s. The Cotton-Hanlin Corporation supplied parts for Ireland mills, and then they sold the parts business to Collins Mill in Cayuta, who sold parts for some years and then discontinued. New parts were still produced on demand at a foundry in Pennsyvania until a few years ago when the foundry burned and the molds for Ireland sawmil parts were destroyed.

Belsaw-The "One Man Sawmill"

The Belsaw Company offered the farmer an inexpensive light small basic mill on which the log carriage
was pushed by hand. The Belsaw brochure explained how the farmer could saw and sell lumber and use the profits
to buy a manual winch to move the log carriage and how later he then could use his increased earnings to buy an automatic power feed. More profits could then be used to buy all the Belsaw labor saving extras to make the mill a profitable enterprise. Although it was small and light, the Belsaw
was capable of sawing large logs but at a slower rate than the larger heavier mills. It had the advantage of being
able to saw small otherwise wasted trees and turn them into much needed cash for the rural landowner.

Belsaw blade slices a Spruce log

Look at my dark beard! No gray!

Nice boards as Grandpa Martin and Uncle Bill give it a try

the Belsaw is small but effective

The Ireland #6 is a heavy duty high capacity mill

Ireland Mills were made in Norwich,NY

I have an Ireland #6

A 46 inch circular saw blade runs at 500 RPM

It has 32 inserted teeth

Each tooth is replaceable but can be sharpened

A "shank" holds in an "inserted tooth"

View from the "Head Sawyer's" platform

The "Head Sawyer" operates the mill and decides on each cut

The "stick" operates the carriage forward and back

The stick is the control that moves the log into the blade

Four headblocks with sharp "dogs" hold the log

As they move forward the log is advanced closer to the blade for each cut

The scoreboard allows the Sawyer to set the log for each cut

The marks allow boards of varying thickness to be cut plus allowing for the "kerf" of the blade

The log carriage wheels run on track

The track must be aligned perfectly past the blade

The mill tracks are 45 feet long

The cable drum winds the steel cable

The cable moves the log carriage forward and back

A log deck for rolling the logs onto the carriage

The deck is made of steel railroad rails

Poplar (Aspen) logs loaded on the deck

The deck is filled with logs before sawing

The log is first squared into a "cant"

This log already has three sides cut and a first pass on this face

A Ford Commander 6000 tractor powers the mill

This old Ford runs well but has no forward gears

The PTO (Power Take Off) from the Ford turns the main shaft (arbor)

The arbor turns the blade and powers the receder

(Hydraulics power a motor that runs the cable drum

The Ford provides the hydraulic power

The power receder speeds up sawing by moving the headblocks with live power